[announce] Namecoin - a distributed naming system based on Bitcoin

[kagawawa]

Who are devs of Namecoin?

[1714159549]

1714159549

[marcus_of_augustus]

Who are devs of Namecoin?

that's a moving target ... there are few of us, some come and go too. Some disappear forever

[deepceleron]

Well done domob, the vision becomes reality ... might be sending a tip to id/domob now it is so easy

Thanks, I'm glad you (and others) like it!

What is the spec of this, does it parse full JSONs, etc?

As an example, here is one of the first id namespaces, my id/deepceleron with a signed message:
{"info": "1DCeLERonUTsTERdpUNqxKTVMmnwU6reu5", "cert": {"address": "1DCeLERonUTsTERdpUNqxKTVMmnwU6reu5", "id": "deepceleron", "info": "deepceleron CA", "authority": "deepceleron", "authbtc": "1DCeLERonUTsTERdpUNqxKTVMmnwU6reu5", "authnmc": "N76D6hEHB55cGPk8QiG6ysgMbXb11b3nAH"}, "sig": "GweBRP+1YnKIMmXuwtsk4zlR7jUuPZxiazfNUbheGRMkomMs4lo/XpNpCDVLujrEynCGYe9dxs/M9nOp98EsXpI="}

As you can see, "info" is a Bitcoin address, and other stuff is inside a "cert", and that cert message is signed by the Bitcoin address.

[phelix]

Well done domob, the vision becomes reality ... might be sending a tip to id/domob now it is so easy

Thanks, I'm glad you (and others) like it!

What is the spec of this, does it parse full JSONs, etc?

As an example, here is one of the first id namespaces, my id/deepceleron with a signed message:
{"info": "1DCeLERonUTsTERdpUNqxKTVMmnwU6reu5", "cert": {"address": "1DCeLERonUTsTERdpUNqxKTVMmnwU6reu5", "id": "deepceleron", "info": "deepceleron CA", "authority": "deepceleron", "authbtc": "1DCeLERonUTsTERdpUNqxKTVMmnwU6reu5", "authnmc": "N76D6hEHB55cGPk8QiG6ysgMbXb11b3nAH"}, "sig": "GweBRP+1YnKIMmXuwtsk4zlR7jUuPZxiazfNUbheGRMkomMs4lo/XpNpCDVLujrEynCGYe9dxs/M9nOp98EsXpI="}

As you can see, "info" is a Bitcoin address, and other stuff is inside a "cert", and that cert message is signed by the Bitcoin address.

Nah, it directly uses the address that actually holds the name.

[freedomno1]

Saw this in Bitcoin discussion seems interesting enough to post here since its a Trendmicro paper analyzing the namecoin project

Bitcoin Domains

http://www.trendmicro.com.au/cloud-content/us/pdfs/security-intelligence/white-papers/wp-bitcoin-domains.pdf


"This paper will attempt to explain what ADR TLDs are and describe the current scope of .bit domains, enumerate .bit domains’ weaknesses, and present a case study of a .bit Trojan and prospective malicious uses of .bit domains."

I'm curious about the botnet that is operating in the namecoin system and was wondering if you guys had any idea on that part of the paper and how it would be avoided.

The Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™, a cloud security infrastructure that rapidly and accurately identifies new threats and delivers global threat intelligence to secure data wherever it resides, detected a botnet that operates with .bit domains

I believe this is Circa 2013 based on Last access November 12, 2013 on the citations so if I missed the discussion feel free to correct or direct me to it.

[domob]

Well done domob, the vision becomes reality ... might be sending a tip to id/domob now it is so easy

Thanks, I'm glad you (and others) like it!

Would there be any way of permitting access to fields? Ex: The ID and website address are accessible to anyone but other fields are only accessible by consent, someone has to have your permission via their own ID to view your email, phone number, etc. I was thinking something along the lines of levels of permission but entry by entry would probably be more versatile.

I can see some applications for this, but in principle, everything you have in the blockchain is public.  So the only way to achieve what you are asking about is to encrypt certain fields, and share the keys with selected people - or something along these lines.  One could probably work out the details, but so far, noone has stated interest in something like that.  Feel free to share any ideas you have, though.

[phelix]

Secure anonymous voting with centralized identification entity: Entity hands out voting tokens (names) to verified IDs. Users do a couple rounds of coinjoin with the voting tokens whenever they feel like it. Vote through the token. Repeat for the next vote.

[BitPla.net]

________

[nutildah]

I'm having a problem with the .conf file. Is there a special way it needs to be created? the way I was doing it was with a text document named bitoin.conf and I'd put a user name and pass in it yet it still doesn't work. Namecoind closes automatically by itself still and if I run namecoind commands in CMD I get this error:

error: You must set rpcpassword=<password> in the configuration file:
C:/Users/Edit/AppData/Roaming/Namecoin/bitcoin.conf

The file is in the correct place. I must be doing something wrong. Any ideas?

Most likely the file is having .txt appended to it by notepad.  How to check.

Open a command prompt
type
move C:/Users/Edit/AppData/Roaming/Namecoin/bitcoin.conf.txt C:/Users/Edit/AppData/Roaming/Namecoin/bitcoin.conf

Try to start bitcoind again

Hey this is the future calling (present... well past, now) and I just wanted to say thanks for posting this. Your advice helped my digital toy go. I'm glad the basics haven't changed much.

[fredeq]

Any block explorer with API for NMC?

Edit: Got it from other thread.

[nonnakip]

namecoind (Linux) freaks out since a few days. 100% CPU. Unresponsive.

I debug problem and found mlock() is silently failing. Problem can be solved by increasing RLIMIT_MEMLOCK for the process.

Easy way to do this is from root shell: ulimit -l unlimited

Then start namecoind as a child process from the root shell. Preferably as a different user.

[iCEBREAKER]

Relevant to our interests:

Using the mini-blockchain for decentralized DNS and encrypted internet layer
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=746100.msg8437811#msg8437811

I don't entirely understand BitFreak's proposal yet but it seems very impressive, with many fancy words and clever techno-magic!   

[agentgreen420]

Namecoin wallpaper and stl. file for 3D printing now available for download
on http://www.bitpla.net/2014/07/namecoin-nmc.html

Now you can make your own physical Namecoin

http://i59.tinypic.com/2b5chj.jpghttp://i62.tinypic.com/2j1k8sx.jpg

Very interesting. Doesn't seem all that useful though.

[phelix]

An entity (pool or exchange) is aggregating lots of low value outputs. As this is good for the system in regard to future pruning efforts it is currently causing client time outs for miners, thus they go offline a lot. The entity seems to own a lot of NMC so it probably is not a deliberate attack.

The transactions come in waves of a couple hundreds to thousands, they are 18kb (100 inputs) or 27kb (150 inputs) large. They only cost the relay fee / kb to relay. The functions underlying the RPC call "getauxblock" can take quite a long time to go through processing these.

What we are doing in the new version to fix the issue is caching input information necessary for the mining relevant RPC calls (thanks again Domob!). Also we will limit tx size to 20kb as it's worse with larger tx O(numberInputs * txSize) and increase the relay fee to 1/5 of the minTxFee.


Give the new version a shot if you are experiencing issues, it should be especially helpful to miners:
Github: https://github.com/namecoin/namecoin/tree/v0.3.76beta
Windows installer: Namecoin_v0.3.76beta_setup.exe 
    sha256: 6f23032d4365571b5133aa0a54c97407d46a71e13fb53927ebd50fc9e1be34ee
Changelog

x-post from https://forum.namecoin.info/viewtopic.php?p=12459#p12459

[coins101]

Sorry for generating spam on your thread. If you want me to delete it, please let me know.

Darkcoin now has around 900 decentralized nodes running its anonymity mixing system. After the coming update to release what is expected to be the last release candidate before open sourcing the anonymity aspect of the project, and the independent audit of the anonymity + overall code, the devs are considering developing an alternative to Tor using the nodes already up and the ones that are expected to join the new network.

Someone has suggested using namecoin for one of the possible aspects of the network:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=579976.0

About .drk and .mn registrations, why not integrating namecoins .bit domains into this coming darknet?
.bit domains have been around quite some time now, and it would be wise to cooperate between existing coins instead of trying to do everything yourself.

The problem with .bit domains has always been how do you make .bit domains visible in an ordinary browser?

For .bit domains there have appeared a few plugins:

www.meowbit.com
www.freespeechme.org

Still, everybody who wants to view .bit domains has to install a plugin, and that is a big hurdle.
If darktor/darknet were able to integrate .bit domains, that would be fantastic for both namecoin and darkcoin.

I suspect they just need to reach out to the DRK devs and community to see if something could be worked on jointly, or if DRK can provide a route on to the eventual network.

Traffic generates costs, as long as there is an incentive for MN I can't see why the DRK devs (I can't speak for them) would not take a look.

I haven't raised this with the DRK devs, so it may be a little premature to raise it here....but just wondering what the feedback might be on the possible fit.

Thanks.

[mumung]

Without being an technical expert I think the namecoin-integration would be a great thing.
Whatever gives namecoin more exposure and actually provides real use cases can only be of mutual benefit for all parties involved. I am not saying that namecoin has no real use cases yet, it just feels like it could use some external boost to make efforts easier use and for possible wider adoption. So far it feels
like nmc-developpers are dealing mostly with nitty-gritty stuff with a slight chance of not
seeing the bigger picture (no offense).

So, I am all for it for the benefit of both coins!

[rav3n_pl]

Any ideas wgo on network?
My daemon is eating 100% cpu and I see in log 18kb transactions over and over...

Code:

AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted fd1f65b625
received: tx (18046 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted a01bf0ec7f
received: tx (18047 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted eaf29142f8
received: tx (18045 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted d2d6894a27
received: tx (18052 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 42533f94fb
received: tx (18058 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 127021528d
received: tx (18045 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 15e0bd0ff2
received: tx (18051 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 357c7bf187
received: tx (18040 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted f8c49ae806
received: tx (18037 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted c49c93c47f
received: tx (18052 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted ba866d0c43
received: tx (18043 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted d5aea1af48
received: tx (18049 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted d1e0e3e0c6
received: tx (18043 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 540dfae4d7
received: tx (18039 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted bb61890670
received: tx (18043 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 46c88f8105
received: tx (18041 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted a604b9f9cc
received: tx (18031 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 959514d7b1
received: tx (18042 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted b3ddf9905e
received: tx (18041 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted f377bc465a
received: tx (18029 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 1b9ad55c17
received: tx (18030 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 2de29a0c2b
received: tx (18041 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 46184e5ce1
received: tx (18047 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted a2dad65a43
received: tx (18037 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted a44e0047aa
received: tx (18045 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 26fcbc32e8
received: tx (18033 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 6fd30a0b4b
received: tx (18054 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 895f501ba0
received: tx (18054 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 2e454d0275
received: tx (18053 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted b9883a16cc
received: tx (18036 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 08bbfd866f
received: tx (18046 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 39c050a575
received: tx (18049 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 24e0e443ed
received: tx (18042 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted c5c4ef99b9
received: tx (18031 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted d86fae2a2b
received: tx (18041 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted c4895a4c4c
received: tx (18049 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 12778d538d
received: tx (18050 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 4f8644d442
received: tx (18046 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted c26e83f6ac
received: tx (18039 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 500fe8315b
received: tx (18046 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 8cecbe9e9e
received: tx (18045 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted e0984ffb07
received: tx (18046 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 6d113f20da
received: tx (18023 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted b8fd16302d
received: tx (18047 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted d7207c347b
received: tx (18040 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted a491d330a2
received: tx (18042 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 20dd16ce10
received: tx (18037 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 073f064f05
received: tx (18040 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 8e0edd7cfb
received: tx (18045 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 78d93c9e9d
received: tx (18043 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted daded960d4
received: tx (18043 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted a5c6dbc95b
received: tx (18033 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted e203ffe0d4
received: tx (18051 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 230c2ab4b0
received: tx (18041 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted d23bac0ccf
received: tx (18040 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted b5b60e6348
received: tx (18055 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted d2b8a50004
received: tx (18058 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 892ac697be
received: tx (18030 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 23c4f65379
received: tx (18045 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 5c33139385
received: tx (18047 bytes)

Daemon is not responding on RPC calls and cant mine it on P2pool.

[phelix]

Any ideas wgo on network?
My daemon is eating 100% cpu and I see in log 18kb transactions over and over...

Code:

AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted fd1f65b625
received: tx (18046 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted a01bf0ec7f
received: tx (18047 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted eaf29142f8
received: tx (18045 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted d2d6894a27
received: tx (18052 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 42533f94fb
received: tx (18058 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 127021528d
received: tx (18045 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 15e0bd0ff2
received: tx (18051 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 357c7bf187
received: tx (18040 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted f8c49ae806
received: tx (18037 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted c49c93c47f
received: tx (18052 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted ba866d0c43
received: tx (18043 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted d5aea1af48
received: tx (18049 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted d1e0e3e0c6
received: tx (18043 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 540dfae4d7
received: tx (18039 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted bb61890670
received: tx (18043 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 46c88f8105
received: tx (18041 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted a604b9f9cc
received: tx (18031 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 959514d7b1
received: tx (18042 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted b3ddf9905e
received: tx (18041 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted f377bc465a
received: tx (18029 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 1b9ad55c17
received: tx (18030 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 2de29a0c2b
received: tx (18041 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 46184e5ce1
received: tx (18047 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted a2dad65a43
received: tx (18037 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted a44e0047aa
received: tx (18045 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 26fcbc32e8
received: tx (18033 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 6fd30a0b4b
received: tx (18054 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 895f501ba0
received: tx (18054 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 2e454d0275
received: tx (18053 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted b9883a16cc
received: tx (18036 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 08bbfd866f
received: tx (18046 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 39c050a575
received: tx (18049 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 24e0e443ed
received: tx (18042 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted c5c4ef99b9
received: tx (18031 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted d86fae2a2b
received: tx (18041 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted c4895a4c4c
received: tx (18049 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 12778d538d
received: tx (18050 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 4f8644d442
received: tx (18046 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted c26e83f6ac
received: tx (18039 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 500fe8315b
received: tx (18046 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 8cecbe9e9e
received: tx (18045 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted e0984ffb07
received: tx (18046 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 6d113f20da
received: tx (18023 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted b8fd16302d
received: tx (18047 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted d7207c347b
received: tx (18040 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted a491d330a2
received: tx (18042 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 20dd16ce10
received: tx (18037 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 073f064f05
received: tx (18040 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 8e0edd7cfb
received: tx (18045 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 78d93c9e9d
received: tx (18043 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted daded960d4
received: tx (18043 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted a5c6dbc95b
received: tx (18033 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted e203ffe0d4
received: tx (18051 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 230c2ab4b0
received: tx (18041 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted d23bac0ccf
received: tx (18040 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted b5b60e6348
received: tx (18055 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted d2b8a50004
received: tx (18058 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 892ac697be
received: tx (18030 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 23c4f65379
received: tx (18045 bytes)
AcceptToMemoryPool(): accepted 5c33139385
received: tx (18047 bytes)

Daemon is not responding on RPC calls and cant mine it on P2pool.

Please update to 0.3.76rc1

Unfortunately I think there are only binaries out yet for Windows...

[phelix]

Sorry for generating spam on your thread. If you want me to delete it, please let me know.

Darkcoin now has around 900 decentralized nodes running its anonymity mixing system. After the coming update to release what is expected to be the last release candidate before open sourcing the anonymity aspect of the project, and the independent audit of the anonymity + overall code, the devs are considering developing an alternative to Tor using the nodes already up and the ones that are expected to join the new network.

Someone has suggested using namecoin for one of the possible aspects of the network:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=579976.0

About .drk and .mn registrations, why not integrating namecoins .bit domains into this coming darknet?
.bit domains have been around quite some time now, and it would be wise to cooperate between existing coins instead of trying to do everything yourself.

The problem with .bit domains has always been how do you make .bit domains visible in an ordinary browser?

For .bit domains there have appeared a few plugins:

www.meowbit.com
www.freespeechme.org

Still, everybody who wants to view .bit domains has to install a plugin, and that is a big hurdle.
If darktor/darknet were able to integrate .bit domains, that would be fantastic for both namecoin and darkcoin.

I suspect they just need to reach out to the DRK devs and community to see if something could be worked on jointly, or if DRK can provide a route on to the eventual network.

Traffic generates costs, as long as there is an incentive for MN I can't see why the DRK devs (I can't speak for them) would not take a look.

I haven't raised this with the DRK devs, so it may be a little premature to raise it here....but just wondering what the feedback might be on the possible fit.

Thanks.

It should be relatively easy to add support for your darknet in Namecoin and peripheral software (e.g. FreeSpeechMe) if you can provide a socket similar to Tor. I would support it and I think most Namecoin supporters, too.

Note that it should probably go into the same Namespace as ".bit" to prevent squatting of yet another namespace and impersonating of .bit domains.

Of course people could also include their Darkcoin (stealth?) addresses into their Namecoin IDs.

[deepceleron]

Just a notice that namecoin-qt v0.3.76rc1, which by virtue of continued support and development is the recommended client to emerge from a confusing year or two, is released as v0.3.76.

v0.3.76rc1

    Set default fee per kb to 0.005NMC (phelix)
    Several optimizations to improve handling of large/many network transactions (Domob)
    Only accept finished transactions (phelix)
    Relay transaction size limited to 20kb (consensus/phelix)
    Increased network relay fee MIN_RELAY_TX_FEE to 100000 (RyanC/Indolering/phelix)
    More restrictive filtering of transactions
    Update to OpenSSL1.0.1i (phelix)
    Better drive performance on disk based systems through less fragmentation (Domob)
    "Renew" GUI Button (Domob)
    contrib/easywinbuilder: Qt5/MinGW4.8.2/cleanup (phelix)
    Qt5 compatibility (Canercandan/phelix)
    New command line / .conf file option: -walletpath=customwalletfilename.dat (digital-dreamer)
    "Pay To" in the Qt can be used to send coins also to a name, like "sendtoname" (Domob)
    New RPC block info: height, confirmations, chainwork, nextblockhash. Change: No previousblockhash for block 0 (RyanC)
    The RPC interface now returns an error while initialising, instead of not accepting connections at all (Domob)

v0.3.75

    Add difficulty to RPC block output JSON (Domob)
    Bitcoin port: skip signature verification on blocks before last checkpoint (phelix)
    New checkpoint at 182000
    Update to OpenSSL1.0.1h (security fix for SSL http RPC)
    Czech localization (digital-dreamer)
    Windows installer script for Innsetup (phelix)
    Enforce value length of 520 characters in RPC and Qt (Domob)
    New command line argument -dbstats runs a DB file storage statistics analysis and prints it to the debug log. (Domob)
    Atomic handling of TxDB/NameDB operations, DB code cleanup and optimization. (Domob)
    Even smaller blkindex.dat. Not backward compatible. It will take a while for the rewrite on the first start. (Domob)

Further announcement and binaries: https://forum.namecoin.info/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1975

Relay transaction size and other transaction handling changes in this release are fixes for the under-reported problem that nearly stalled merge-mining on the Namecoin network:

An unknown party (The Aggregator) began consolidating a massive volume (50,000-100,000K) of unspent outputs into a single address. However, namecoind has extreme difficulty selecting outputs to spend in a wallet containing tens of thousands of unspent outputs. The Aggregator appears to have attempted to address this by writing a script which manually built transactions spending 50 or 100 of those unspent outputs to a new address.

The problem is that each of these transactions were 17-30 KB and rather than the standard transaction fee of 0.005NMC per KB (rounded up), a flat fee of 0.005NMC was used. Namecoin, like Bitcoin actually has two fee values, MIN_TX_FEE (used by miners) and MIN_RELAY_TX_FEE (used by all other full nodes). This enables MIN_TX_FEE to be lowered down to MIN_RELAY_TX_FEE without nodes who haven’t yet upgraded refusing to forward transactions with the new lower fee. On Bitcoin, the ratio between MIN_TX_FEE and MIN_RELAY_TX_FEE is 5:1, but due to an oversight it was 50:1 in Namecoin. The result was that The Aggregator’s transactions had a large enough fee to be forwarded throughout the network, but were considered “insufficient fee/free” transactions by miners. Since there is very limited space in blocks for such transactions, they just kept building up in the miners’ memory pools. The volume of transactions soon began causing the merge-mining software run by pools to time-out trying to get work.